Loading...We are all vulnerable.
We don’t really like to admit it, but we are all vulnerable.
We would rather put up the façade of strength;
after all, that is what gets rewarded in our society.
We would rather be the strong individualist!
This is also rampant all around us as a value held by our culture.
If we DO admit vulnerability, we do so with fear and trembling.
And, yet, we are all vulnerable.
Jairus, the leader of the synagogue – a position of power and authority in this village. Yet, he was vulnerable because his daughter was SO ill and he was afraid that she would die.
The woman who was bleeding for 12 years – she was so vulnerable: a woman, bleeding, for 12 years, impoverished (as she’d spent all that she had on medical treatments that didn’t work), “unclean”, and an outcast.
The child who was sick unto death – she was ultimately vulnerable as she did, indeed, die.
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In our Gospel story today, Jesus has returned from the “other” side.
He had crossed the sea in a boat (through those storm-tossed waves which he stilled), then cast out the demon named “Legion” which had been infecting a man who’d ended up being so violent and uncontrollable that he had been banished to the graveyard and chained up (although he had broken through those chains).
And then, Jesus came back to the known side; he came back to his homeland.
He returned from the wilderness to the known, the familiar, “home”.
Yet, here in this Jewish town, there is as much – indeed, there is more – brokenness.
And, these who are broken turn to Jesus for healing, for life, for hope:
Jairus
the woman who had been bleeding
the twelve year old girl.
and many crowds of people.
When we are broken, lost, or vulnerable
we are also filled with fear and trembling.
The forces around us may feel so powerful and overwhelming.
How can we ever overcome?
We overcome like the woman who had been bleeding for so many years
who had the courage and chutzpah to reach out;
who had the faith and belief to touch the robes of the One with life to give.
There are the vulnerable like the mommas and daddies who come with the children from places of unimaginable violence seeking life,
but then, as refugees seeking asylum, are incarcerated as if criminal.
There are those lost, like the children in foster care who need a safe and nurturing home.
There are vulnerable, like the LGBT friends who face hatred or violence.
And, there are those who feel broken –
any of us who are in any kind of relationship and who are in community,
because we are all vulnerable because things fall apart or are broken:
health, economics, marriages.
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So, then what?
When vulnerable, you experience a range of emotions:
grief, anger, frustration,
but also despair or despondency.
Yet, you may also have
hope – the small flicker of possibility, and
courage – to take a step, small, towards life.
Jairus had hope to reach out to Jesus.
Even as his daughter was so very sick, he still had the small flame of hope.
The woman who had been bleeding had courage to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe.
She had faith to reach out to him.
You, in the midst of whatever brokenness you’re experiencing,
you are invited to take that small step, or lean, towards the life that is in Jesus.
Because Jesus meets us in our need with love, kindness, and compassion.
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Yesterday, I went to a rally at Grant Park in Spokane called
“Families Belong Together” with more than 1000 people gathered together to protest the administration’s practice of separating children from their parents when attempting to come into the US as refugees and asylum seekers. Though that policy has officially ended, those who WERE separated are not yet reunited with family members.
We gathered together with the spark of hope and steps of courage.
For many of us, that spark is the love of God in Jesus.
The courage is the Holy Spirit giving us a nudge.
Yesterday, I also saw “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”,
the documentary about Mr. Rogers – actually, The Rev. Fred Rogers.
One of the parts that I loved most about Mr. Rogers was that he was shown in the footage to get down on the level of the children he was visiting with. He’d fold that tall body and long legs into a kindergartner-sized chair so that he could look at children at their eye level to connect with them one to one.
I also appreciated the honesty in the story about his own despair and fear and the way he dealt with that, not letting it overwhelm him, but trusting.
He drew upon the well of the waters of life for renewal.
He remembered the love that God had for him and for all the children who needed to know God’s love.
He acted, always, with kindness in action and in speech.
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Our vulnerability is real
and it may be overwhelming.
But it is not the whole story.
It is not the end of the story.
May you know the life, hope, and love in Jesus
who reaches out to you
to restore you to healthy, to community, to hope, and to life.
Amen
